Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Lewis Hamilton has lavished his new car, the W08, with praise after setting the quickest time on Day One of pre-season testing.

"Pretty happy with the work everyone's done with the car - it looks fantastic," he told Sky Sports News HQ.

"It feels great and there's lot of things we need to improve on, which we will, but a great first day to get that many laps in and our car looks the best, so I'm happy."

Despite only driving the new Mercedes car in the afternoon, Hamilton topped the timesheets with a time of 1:21.765 - a considerable improvement on the best time set in the entirety of winter testing at Barcelona 12 months ago and an immediate statement of ominous intent from the world champions.

"Firstly, people always want to big you up at the beginning of the season, two, we are world champions, and three, our car looks a thousand times better than anyone else's so that [people saying we are favourites] is to be expected," added Hamilton.

Ominously for their rivals, Mercedes not only set the fastest lap of the day but they also recorded more laps than any other team.

Although the sport's rule makers have demanded cars which are tougher to drive, Hamilton and new team-mate Valtteri Bottas completed in excess of race-distance equivalents in the W08.

"It's a much more beefed up version from the car we've had in the previous years. It's a lot more downforce, a lot faster through the corners. And that means a lot more load for the driver which is quite a considerable amount which is a good challenge," said Hamilton.

"It's harder to get the car into the corner, it's more force on the body, harder to hold your head up. It's just a lot more physical."

Hamilton was, however, doubtful that the faster, more aggressive machines will guarantee more overtaking in Formula 1.

"I was behind a couple of cars out there and it was harder to follow," the 32-year-old admitted. "Right now the tyres are so hard, they don't drop off, they just keep going and going.

"So most likely we're going to be doing a lot more one-stoppers as there's less degradation, and there's going to be less overtaking. That's my estimation but I might be wrong. We'll find out."

England survived a batting collapse of six wickets for 49 runs to win their last one-day warm-up game ahead of the three-match one-day international series against West Indies, starting Friday.

Set 234 to win by a West Indies Cricket Board Presidents' XI in St Kitts, England stuttered their way to the target after slipping from 128-1 to 177-7.

Jonny Bairstow top-scored opening the batting, with 86 from 97 balls, but it was left to an unbeaten run-a-ball 47 from Chris Woakes to see the tourists home in the penultimate over.

Earlier, Ben Stokes (3-35) and Liam Plunkett (3-44) took three wickets each to restrict their hosts, although there was some bad news for the visitors as Jake Ball left the field early on with a knee injury.

England lost the toss and were made to bowl first, so the visitors will have been mightily pleased to reduce the home side to 55-5 by the 17th over.

Openers Montcin Hodge (16) and Kyle Hope (24) put on 41 for the first wicket before Plunkett dismissed the former to trigger a mini-collapse, with the Yorkshire quick adding the scalps of Sunil Ambris (1) and Andre McCarthy (0) in a later over.

But the West Indies side rallied, with top-scoring skipper Jahmar Hamilton (73) and Rahkeem Cornwall (59) sharing in a 123-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Adil Rashid finally broke the partnership, getting rid of Cornwall, and though Kyle Mears added a further quickfire 33 - off 32 balls - lower down the order, Stokes and Woakes (2-37) mopped up the tail to see their hosts bowled out with two overs to spare.

In reply, England lost Sam Billings (2) in the third over, but Yorkshire pair Bairstow and Joe Root (46) added 117 for the second wicket that seemingly had the visitors cruising to victory.

But Root's dismissal sparked a middle-order collapse, with Jos Buttler (8) and Moeen Ali (2) departing for single-figure scores, then Bairstow falling 14 short of a century.

When McCarthy took the wickets of captain Eoin Morgan (15) and Stokes (0) within two balls of each other, England were suddenly in big trouble.

And although an eighth wicket of Adil Rashid (10) fell, Woakes' fine innings under pressure kept England's unbeaten start to their tour in tact.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Due to his multi-faceted success and established track record, Corey Rockafeler was invited to become part of Mayor Bloomberg’s top business development team at NYC Business Solutions. There he developed and managed top accounts such as, 21 Club, Soho House ,Mandarin Oriental, Zabars, Time Warner, Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage, 16 Handles, Citarella, Dylan’s Candy, Magnolia Cupcakes, Georgetown Cupcakes, Empellon, Balducci’s On the Go, and Vapiano.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Top List of Best Places to Celebrate New Year's Eve in 2017. Los Angeles is an underrated place to ring in the New Year. No, it's not Times Square but there are plenty of places to celebrate, and we even have our own ball drop. Here's a list of where to go and what to do for a rockin' L.A. New Year's Eve.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Very few sports figures can deliver the summer blockbuster movie drama like LeBron James. In his latest iteration, of the "Traveling Man," King James has decided to take his talents back to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes,that LBJis not a misprint. Faster than you can say, haven't I seen this movie before, questions abound over the reunion of James and Cavalier owner, Dan Gilbert. Gilbert, is better known in some circles as the author of the infamous jilted owner open letter, where he excoriated LeBron and blamed him for everything but the 1929 stock market crash. NBA basketball marriages, as in politics, make strange bed fellows. Grudges be damned when it's about two-time NBA champion, 4-time MVP, home town hero( or villain), and best player on the planet.
Now what? James' arrival has injected hope back to a city still reeling from his soul-crushing departure. James will enjoy oracle status among Cleveland's collage of rising stars. It starts with the super talented, yet fragile and defensively deficient point guard Kyrie Irving. At only 21, Irving has played in 174 out of 215 games in his 3-year NBA career. There are already many question over his durability. Were not even mentioning the college toe injury that saw him play in only 11 games at Duke. You also have 2013 number one pick, Anthony Bennett( notice I have not used the word bust, way too early) and of course this years number one pick, uber-athletic, Andrew Wiggins. Sprinkle in under sized power forward, Tristan Thompson, wily veteran center, Anderson Varejao, and swing man Dion Waiters, 3 first round draft picks in 2015, and you have the framework of something special-albeit with a rookie coach. But with so many alluring assets, and the specter of a new " Big Three, " the trade machine is now operating at full throttle. Enter Kevin Love.
Kevin Love, the offensively prodigious, rebounding machine, and 2015 unrestricted free agent has already mentioned if traded to Cleveland he would consider signing an extension. Ya think! Do the math! LeBron, Kyrie, and Love? Toss in a few key rotation players, and you will have an extended run at multiple NBA rings. Hoops media is already ablaze with potential trade scenarios involving top pick Andrew Wiggins. The Cavaliers are already saying there is no way Wiggins will be traded in any package for Love. Notwithstanding, the stroke of brilliance in the return of the prodigal son, James, no one is confusing Cleveland with being a Spurs East. This is a team with a meddling owner and a marginal front office. Let's not confuse luck with exceptional competence Wiggins for Love, in any package is a no-brainer.
Although supremely athletic and very talented, Wiggins has already been miscast as a franchise-altering talent: he is not. This has been presciently pointed out by the absurdly talented NBA analyst and writer Jonathan Tjarks, Wiggins has a number of holes in his boat. Applying a universal baseline devised by Tjarks similar to the five tool metric in baseball, and you get a qualitative measure for evaluating NBA talent. The five measures are: creating your own shot, creating shots for others, shooting off the pass, rebounding, and defense.
Looking at the surface, it's easy to get viscerally excited over Wiggins. 19 years old, 6-8, 200 with a 7- foot wingspan. But with further scrutiny. Wiggins projects to be a taller Andre Iguodala( an elite rotation player).Wiggins is not a particularly skilled ball handler, passer, or shooter. His demonstrative athletic advantage will be less so in the NBA His already too high assist-to- turnover ratio also shows me a player who is yet to develop the elite hoops DNA to think he game( and see things before they happen). So with our new five-tool baseline, Wiggins grades as very good at not elite.
Conversely, Kevin Love is an ELITE NBA talent. This season he just missed with 12.5 boards of becoming only the fifth player in NBA history to average 26 points, 13 boards and 4 dimes for a full season. Wilt, Kareem, Billy Cunningham, and Elgin Baylor are the four. Love is also coming off a season where he was third in PER and EWA( Estimated Wins Added) behind LeBron and Durant. It should also be noted he is doing this with a second rate supporting cast. Let's also factor in the C word-chemistry. Love is perfect fit with Kyrie and LeBron. Those two excel at breaking down defenses leaving Love with plenty of open looks to knock down perimeter shots on drive and dishes. Moreover, you get positional versatility with Love. Due to his court vision,and superb passing skills, you can run high-low offense with he and LeBron. Love can go to either high post or blocks and so can LeBron.
With Cleveland's three first round 2015 picks, and an abundance of young talent, Wiggins moves the trade needle to get Love from Minnesota. Rule 101, of NBA elite front office management- know the value of your assets. Its simple-Love is an franchise talent, Wiggins is not. The only drawback would be Minnesota insistence of taking back Kevin Martin's bad contract.contract. That is is a no-no. Martin's matador defense with Kyrie's defensive woes would be toxic. To balance out the LeBron, Love,Kyrie "Big Three,"Cleveland will need a long 3 and D 2- guard, and an athletic rim protecting center who can defer the pick-and roll and cover for Love's porous defense.
Cav fans, welcome back to hoops relevance. Minnesota fans, losing Love is not the end of the world( or maybe it is). Miami, you have two rings, plenty of memories,and great weather. Cavs pull the Love trigger. Remember what I said about luck.

About Me

What do you get when you combine game-changing bottom line performance, true client-first leadership with innovative design-based conceptual sales and marketing strategies? You get Corey Rockafeler.

I have been developing successful business strategies for C-level executives, entrepreneurs,, and small business owners for over 25 years.

As SR. VP on Wall Street - Wealth manager for private and institutional accounts at such firms as Rothschild, Oppenheimer & Co., Prime Charter, and First Republic Group, I managed assets and advised on hedge fund strategies.

In the real estate financing I developed and managed high performance sales teams at leading companies such as Topdot Mortgage and Continental Home loans. There are holds numerous top sales and achievement awards for his client-first leadership.

With a passion for opera and superb business development skills I became a core part one of the top fund-raising teams in the world with the renowned Metropolitan Opera.

With his multi-faceted success and established track record, I was invited to become part of Mayor Bloomberg’s business development team at NYC Business Solutions. There I developed and managed top accounts such as, 21 Club, Soho House ,Mandarin Oriental, Zabars, Time Warner, Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage, 16 Handles, Citarella, Dylan’s Candy, Magnolia Cupcakes, Georgetown Cupcakes, Empellon, Balducci’s On the Go, and Vapiano.

Currently, I am Senior Managing Director-Partner at Bell Funding Solutions in New York City. BFS is a leader in small business financing. Some of the city’s top businesses regard Corey as their first choice when it comes to securing growth and expansion capital. I offer one-stop shopping for small business financing. My custom solutions include everything from multi-year terms, real estate-based business lines of credit, asset and collateral based loans, Shariah- compliant financing, to SBA bridge loans. When asked about his key to success, Corey stated, “It’s all about passion, I truly love what I do.” He added, “I learned very early, if you take care of your clients, they will take care of you. In today’s world of immediacy and instant gratification, I tell clients I want to gain their trust and confidence the old fashioned way-I want to earn it.”